Rather than give up his explosives, the bomber detonated them, killing himself and the two robbers near the border fence between Gaza and Israel. [...] The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three.

There have been cases of rival groups stealing each other's explosives, but no group claimed the two gunmen, and their families did not go to the hospital to take the bodies, indicating that the two were not militants, who are revered in Palestinian society.

A Hamas official said that whatever their intention, the two should be considered agents of Israel. ``Anyone who tries to stop a fighter from doing his work is a collaborator,'' he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Once again, we see the cruelty of the Israeli occupation: conditions in Gaza are so desperate that a poor suicide bomber, who only wants to blow up a busload of Israeli civilians for the sake of the jihad, is forced to blow up his fellow Arabs instead. If the borders of the territories were not so strictly controlled, then explosives would be widely available to anyone who wanted them, and nobody would be faced with these dilemmas.

Obviously, the families were so ashamed of the situation, that they didn't go and claim the bodies. Immediately Hamas will state that they were traitors, seeing as, obviously, there is no infighting between arabs living in the occupied territories. That's about as believable as saying that the Palestinian Authority isn't corrupt and takes the suffering of their own people into account when they wire millions of dollars to their secret accounts in Europe. I made up a pretty good quote while I was living in Israel:

"The only things that Palestinian and Israeli politicians have in common are their Volvo limousines and their ripped off constituents..."

ah, this is the media's fault- not sure if they do it on purpose or not, but hamas is the political branch, and al-aqsa intifada is the militant branch, so its sort of like saying 'the senates general' or something, i dunno - thus is kinda why the world is pissed that .il keeps killing the hamas leaders, as hamas is the political section; if you are at all familar with the troubles in n. ireland, than hamas is to sinn fein as al-aqsa intifada is to the (p)ira.

thus is kinda why the world is pissed that .il keeps killing the hamas leaders, as hamas is the political section; if you are at all familar with the troubles in n. ireland, than hamas is to sinn fein as al-aqsa intifada is to the (p)ira.

Nope, wrong.

Al-Aqsa is a military organization associated with Fatah, Yassir Arafat's group.

Hamas is a group that has both political and military ambitions, but which has been most active so far as a terrorist outfit. The reason that "the world is pissed that Israel keeps killing the Hamas leaders" is that "the world" is obsessed with the delusion that Hamas is actually amenable to negotiation.

When European politicians hear Hamas leaders say "our goal is to wipe Israel off the map and replace it with an islamic dictatorship", they hear "can't we all just live in peace?"

When they hear Hamas' suicide bombers say "We want to kill as many Israelis as possible and become martyrs and live in paradise" they hear "we only blow up schoolbusses because we grew up in deprived families and don't have universal health insurance"

you are correct I was wrong about the name of the militant branch of hamas, I was going from memory and it served me incorrectly. Unfortunatley, you still refer to it as a terrorist outfit, it has mainly two seperate wings, hamas- founded in 1967 as a wing of the muslim brotherhood, within a few years it registered with israeli authorities as a nonprofit, religious organization (similar to the PLO). A reuters report from 1993 said that hamas won 10 seats compared to 16 for the PLO in an election held by a 5,000 member professional union in Gaza. While you or I might call Arafat, or Sharon terrorists or criminals, or both (I agree that both are both actually). The world does regard them as politicians, The militant wing of hamas, which I incorrectly called the Al-Aqsa infintada, is actually called the 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassim Brigades',

as for you comments,"the world" is obsessed with the delusion that Hamas is actually amenable to negotiation.

the same could be said about israel, both sides are fucking criminals- anyone who denies that for either side is just simply being blind. The difference is omne side recieves over 6 billion USD annually (illegally at that [hasnt signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty]), the other gets random cameo's on cnn as terrorists, although both sides really are terrorists. the funny part is every israeli sympathsizer says the palestinians want to wipe israel off the face of the world, yet every palestinian ive ever met hgas never expressed that, they've only longed for 'liberty' and 'freedom'. back to the rest of your comments though.

I like your little comment about universal healthcare, you might want healthcare too if your country had been occupied for ~100 years (not all .il's fault), the area you lived in had aprox 80% unemployment rate, routinely the country that occupies your home sends forth settlers with military guard, restricts you from having any political activity in their country, shaves your womens head and brands you all with barcodes. Nevermind demolishes your house because your 2nd cousin got sick of it and attacked back. another funny part is that israel, for being the biggest democracy in the middle easy, has less rights for women than the now defunct iraq did, hell the even funnier part is, that since the 70's and 80's, iraq has had more laws to protect the rights of women, than the us does. But who cares after all, they are all just a bunch of suicide bombing women abusing crazies who couldnt possibly have any point beyond the will to kill jews.

the funny part is every israeli sympathsizer says the palestinians want to wipe israel off the face of the world, yet every palestinian ive ever met has never expressed that, they've only longed for 'liberty' and 'freedom'.

Are you claiming that the PLO was not, in fact, founded for the purpose of destroying Israel?

In any case, the following excerpt from an article in the magazine Der Spiegel illustrates the truth far better than I can:

Rantisi (ex-leader of Hamas) answered every question very openly and very rehearsed, because he is always asked the same questions and always gives the same answers. What I liked about him, what I treasured, was that in contrast to people from the PLO, he was completely honest and never made the slightest attempt to seem friendly, pragmatic, or open to compromise. While the PLO people talk about the "two-states solution" and add with a wink that there will naturally only be one state in all of Palestine eventually; while they are wishy-washy when asked about the legitimacy of terroristic acts - no terror against civilians, only against military targets, but what constitutes a military target depends on the situation - Rantisi was completely clear and unambiguous.

For him, "Occupied territories" were not just the Gaza strip and the West bank, but instead the entire zionist state, including Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Ramat Gan. He never used the word "Israel". There will be peace in the middle ease only after the zionist state has ceased to exist; when the Jews go back to where they came from: Poland, Russia, Germany, America, Marocco, and so on.

In response to my question, how long he would fight for this goal, whether it might be better to agree on a "territorial compromise", he looked at me as if I had proposed that he pray in the direction of Moscow instead of Mecca, and answered that the palestinians have a lot of time, and are prepared to make many sacrifices. Time is working against the zionists, and it took 200 years to expel the crusaders from Palestine as well.

I was impressed. I found his position completely crazy, but internally coherent. I just wouldn't want him to be my next-door neighbor.

...

Rantisi's Logic is very simple. Since the "zionist state" is illegitmate and illegal, everything that the zionists do is illegtimate and illegal. They have no right of self-defense. On the other hand, since the Palestinians are poltically and morally in the right, everything they do is legitimate and legal, even when they strap explosives onto their own children and send them to martyrdom. According to Israeli sources, in the past three and a half years 29 suicide bombings have been committed by Palestinians younger than 18 years old.

Amazingly, this fact has caused far less outrage (to be exact: none at all) than the killing of a so-called holy man, who was "not an innocent victim", who had "blood on both hands", as Claus Kleber almost endearingly put it on the day of Jassin's demise. Remember the 14 year old Palestinian a few days later, who was wearing an explosive belt under his jacket and was "disarmed" with the help of a robot. No one who saw that could feel sympathy with those who wanted to sacrifice him.

...

It seems likely that Abdel Rantisi's prediction is correct: The Palestinians have all the time in the world, and are prepared for many sacrifices. Israelis of good will, on the other hand, push for the solution: "Peace Now!". And even if they prevail, give up the occupied territories, and reduce the state of Israel to the beach and boardwalk of Tel Aviv, the conflict wouldn't be over -- because it's not about freedom, self-determination, and territories; it's about honor, heroism, and martyrdom.

israel, for being the biggest democracy in the middle easy, has less rights for women than the now defunct iraq did, hell the even funnier part is, that since the 70's and 80's, iraq has had more laws to protect the rights of women, than the us does.

And the Soviet Union respected all human rights, allowed complete freedom of the press and association, and had free and fair elections - after all, that's what their constitution and laws said.